August 2020: In-Laws, Frozen, and Mexican Banks
Another pandemic month has come and gone, but this time we saw some people.
So many in-laws
My sister-in-law came to stay with us for a few weeks, with her two kids, her mother-in-law, her (not my) nephew, and at one point her sister-in-law and brother-in-law. My parents-in-law live across the street. So many in-laws. The good news is that my daughter hasn’t played with Harry the Hairball once!
While full immersion has been very helpful for my Spanish, I attempted to speak French to a French chef we met in town and it came out a garbled Frañol. It was incomprehensible, and made me feel horrible, and I’m not sure what to do about it.
Frozen Conspiracy Theories
Are we in Salem?
My daughter turned 5 this month and all she ever wants to talk about/be is Elsa, so we got all the Frozen crap we saw at the piñata store (thankfully we didn’t have to make our own like we have the past two years in Tanzania- although maybe ours would have looked less creepy?).
I forgot about halving the rising agent in her cupcakes to adjust for altitude, both otherwise totally nailed it with store-bought frosting (my nephew is lactose intolerant and it’s dairy-free, which really makes me wonder…) and Lego Frozen characters.
I am so ready to be on Nailed It!
She has gotten deep into the Disney YouTube conspiracy theories (D Anon?) about how all these princesses are related to each other. It’s frightening. I am trying to convince her that representative democracy is better than a monarchy, but when she watched Hamilton her favorite character was King George.
Fought the Mexican banking system
And now for a short rant on Mexican banks. I’ve taken over managing our Mexican bank accounts since I’m not working, and I was outraged by how much money was bleeding from our accounts each month.
The basilica next to one of our many banks.
There is NO autopay for credit cards and interest rates can be as high as 200%. They not only give you no interest in your bank account, but they also charge all kinds of fees for EVERYTHING. Like on incoming wire transfers. I just gave you money!
We have been attempting the month to consolidate our banking to only one account with no fees, but to change almost anything you have to physically go to the bank and it takes at least two hours. Honestly, we would be better off burying our money in our backyard. If only our evil squirrels would do online transfers.
If you want to make crazy money, open a Mexican bank.
Other things that made me mad this month? Tim Ferriss’s sexism.
Made No Difference in the World
With the houseguests, my volunteering (outside the family) has whittled down to very little. Same with meditation and writing. I did get some exercise by attempting to mow our lawn with a push mower, plus I go up and down the stairs a lot and seem to always be cleaning up something...My August pipedreams turned out to be just that.
The good news is, we now have a teacher from Man who Works’ aunt’s Waldorf school who comes to our house for three hours a day and does kindergarten in our treehouse. It’s the first reliable childcare I’ve had since we left Tanzania in April. With our houseguests also leaving in a few days, I’m setting myself a schedule for school hours Monday-Thursday (Friday is free because hey, I’m retired):
15 min of admin tasks
5-10 min of meditation
1.5 hours of writing
1 hour of texting with Text Troop (Monday-Tuesday) or Dems Abroad phone banking (Wednesday-Thursday)
Only two months left until the election and any anxiety caused by volunteering will be much less than the trauma to us all of Trump being re-elected. I’m splitting up the types of volunteering to avoid my previous burnout, especially with texting where people can be very hostile.
Calling people is scarier to start - I haven’t been much of a phone talker since middle school - but is actually more pleasant once I overcome the initial fear since you are calling Democrats abroad who vote in swing states to make sure they get their ballots on time. They never answer with “MAGA 2020!” or talk about elephant penises.
My neck is already starting to hurt from being in front of the computer again after such a long break..we will see how long I can keep up this schedule!